Essays on Household Financial Decision-Making

This thesis is a collection of four self-contained papers on topics related to
household economic behavior and financial decision-making. In the first part, I
examine how specific knowledge, namely pension and financial literacy, affects
the decision to save for retirement and show that knowledge of how the pension
system works is the most important factor in retirement saving decisions. In the
second part, I look at changes in consumption and investment decisions following an increase in disposable income. I find that consumption and bond investment are affected by this event. In the final part, I focus instead on a specific type of investment - socially responsible investment (SRI) - and analyze how households' stated preferences for these products are shaped by economic and non-economic characteristics. I argue that both behavioral factors and financial literacy are important drivers of interest in SRI which may influence individuals' engagement with these products.